Primary School Teacher' Strategies on Graphic Interpretation in Computational Environment

The present paper refers to the analyses of one primary school teacher's manipulation of graphics dealing with basic Statistics concepts. The teacher's formation occurred during workshops as well as individual meetings carried out at the school where this teacher works. The main themes were graphic manipulation and representation of data inside a computational environment. For the purpose of this paper, we will present an analysis of the teacher's strategies to solve a 'pontual question'. The results indicate that the teacher preferred to read graphics as if they were simplified tables, avoiding the iconic representation. Although frequency tables are often an efficient way to analyze data, there are moments in which tables alone are not sufficient, and a graphic representation is necessary. This teacher's rejection of the graphic mode also reveals her lack of familiarity with the technology.